Post by ibex on Nov 14, 2008 22:54:36 GMT -5
All,
So yesterday my two friends from school (Mike and Kenny) were heading to C'daigua and in my moaning about how far of a drive it would be to meet them there, my buddy Mike warned me to think carefully before heading out to Seneca (my default on a S day) because the wind was in the 30's with gusts in the 40s. He also told me he knew a couple of Rochester-hardmen where there as we spoke, and that these dudes were probably rigging like 3.8's or 4.2s or something barely larger than a t-shirt for a sail. Ultimately I decide to pass (on both C'daigua and Seneca), get some work done and head up there today when the winds were set to be a bit milder (low teens).
Its a long story, but I had a Dr's appt scheduled for early this am in C'daigua, and on my drive there at 7-something in the morning I get a call saying that my appt was cancelled (thanks for the advanced notice folks... anyways, I digress). Now being 2/3 of the way to Geneva, I figured the thing to do was just to proceed to Geneva, hang out in the library and get some work done until the afternoon when I was going to try meet up with Amanda and surf anyways.
After a few hrs of lousy email access (I know, what else is he going to complain about) and no good coffee (yep, that was bound to come up) I manage to get some work done and head down to Seneca Lake Park after lunch. I drove in and was greeted by a nice light 10-12ish breeze from the south, and at which point I decided to rig my 7.5. Until a week ago I didn't have a boom large enough to rig it, but Gary (from ROC) hooked me up with a boom of his, and I was stoked to try it out with this sail, and make the most out of a light wind day. Unfortunately my elation didn't last long, because I found that I had managed to crack one side of where the mast clamp attaches to the "rail", and decided that the better course of action was to not damage it further by trying to ride it when it was cracked (I am pretty sure I can cut off the cracked bit, drill a new hole and be back in business!).
So, 7.5 gets rolled back up, and 6.5 comes out. As an aside... After several days chasing my first waterstart, and getting zero sailing done, I managed to actually get really good at rigging my 6.5 (a nicely cambered Gaastra that Alan (also from ROC) set me up with) and have learned to focus on fine-tuning the downhaul tension as a way to really dial in/shape the depth and tension of the sailcloth. Well, as I go to put my U-joint back into the mast extension, I notice this good sized crack running across the base of my vintage U-joint (made in W Germany... like every other plastic piece of my gear). And the dawning realization of what this means slowly washes over me, as chilling as a 45 degree wave of water...
(insert profanity)
I am talking LOTS of profanity. My mind starts going into overdrive on what I am going to do here.
I call my buddy Kenny who has the same mast-base (old Fanatic with white plastic plug-style attachment) and give him the "hey... you weren't thinking of coming out to Seneca this afternoon where you?" (oh please God, say yes...) "Naw, we had a great day at C'daigua yesterday, why didn't you come up for it?" (mutter something about school and realize its a lost cause b/c he has plans for the afternoon, thank him and explore other options)
Hmmm...
I call Google 411 (if you haven't heard of it: www.google.com/goog411/ ) to try and call the shop in C'daigua, but its closed, and then I remember the owner saying he was going to be shutting down for the season around 7 Nov or something.
Sh*t.
(insert despair)
Now, granted it wasn't the *best* of wind, but it was like 65 degrees, sunny and probably the last "nice" day of the season I was going to get, and not only had I broken two pieces of critical gear, I managed to break one of the things I didn't have any spares of, and no way to fix.
(insert LOTS more despair)
So my friend Amanda shows up and we talk about it, and she's like "well, its already cracked, the wind is from the S, if I were you... I'd just stay close to shore and ride it until it breaks". Now this goes against every last piece of Boy Scout philosophy within me, but lacking any good options, it seems like the only thing left to do (as an aside, in climbing we have an analogous saying for when things are bad and you are out of options... we call it "retreating upward").
Anyways... I tied my mast extension to my mast base with a piece of cord (planning ahead for when entropy takes over and the "few" pieces became "many"), and set off for whatever adventure that some 1980's plastic had in store for me. I am glad I did though, because it ended up being a great day of sailing. I amazed myself by hitting 80-ish% of my tacks, and when I got blown into the drink, out in the middle of the lake, I stopped myself from just hopping back on the board and uphauling. No no... a bit of patient re-arranging, 20 seconds of butt-sailing, and I was back on plane with my first "I actually needed to use it" waterstart. Amanda was styling it too, with a bunch of waterstarts, and her first day in the footstraps!
This ensued a round of congratulations, and a comical "look how far we have come" debate on who had been surfing longer and was more advanced... (now that we can both waterstart and get into the footstraps) like there is some sort of moral virtue among the clinically insane. It went something like: I took a single lesson 7 years ago and handn't touched a board until 3 months ago. She started with a few days last fall, and since June has been out as much as possible. In the end, I think I won the semantics side of the debate, she won the actual skill and proficiency side of it. You be the judge.
Overall it was a great day on the water and I will end my missive with this plead to the masses: if anyone has a spare mast base that can be modified/cannibalized to fix this one, or one I can bolt my white plastic thingy on:
shawnhigbee.smugmug.com/photos/417146029_WagJb-M.jpg (crack is where the pen tip is)
Or has any pointers on where I can get this fixed, that would be IMMENSELY appreciated. I mean, I don't have what it takes to play with the Seneca Lake A-team on a 40mph day, but if I can get this thing fixed, I intend to push this season as far as I can go until I turn into a popsicle out there.
Have a great night everyone!
Shawn
Seneca Lake B-team Charter Member
So yesterday my two friends from school (Mike and Kenny) were heading to C'daigua and in my moaning about how far of a drive it would be to meet them there, my buddy Mike warned me to think carefully before heading out to Seneca (my default on a S day) because the wind was in the 30's with gusts in the 40s. He also told me he knew a couple of Rochester-hardmen where there as we spoke, and that these dudes were probably rigging like 3.8's or 4.2s or something barely larger than a t-shirt for a sail. Ultimately I decide to pass (on both C'daigua and Seneca), get some work done and head up there today when the winds were set to be a bit milder (low teens).
Its a long story, but I had a Dr's appt scheduled for early this am in C'daigua, and on my drive there at 7-something in the morning I get a call saying that my appt was cancelled (thanks for the advanced notice folks... anyways, I digress). Now being 2/3 of the way to Geneva, I figured the thing to do was just to proceed to Geneva, hang out in the library and get some work done until the afternoon when I was going to try meet up with Amanda and surf anyways.
After a few hrs of lousy email access (I know, what else is he going to complain about) and no good coffee (yep, that was bound to come up) I manage to get some work done and head down to Seneca Lake Park after lunch. I drove in and was greeted by a nice light 10-12ish breeze from the south, and at which point I decided to rig my 7.5. Until a week ago I didn't have a boom large enough to rig it, but Gary (from ROC) hooked me up with a boom of his, and I was stoked to try it out with this sail, and make the most out of a light wind day. Unfortunately my elation didn't last long, because I found that I had managed to crack one side of where the mast clamp attaches to the "rail", and decided that the better course of action was to not damage it further by trying to ride it when it was cracked (I am pretty sure I can cut off the cracked bit, drill a new hole and be back in business!).
So, 7.5 gets rolled back up, and 6.5 comes out. As an aside... After several days chasing my first waterstart, and getting zero sailing done, I managed to actually get really good at rigging my 6.5 (a nicely cambered Gaastra that Alan (also from ROC) set me up with) and have learned to focus on fine-tuning the downhaul tension as a way to really dial in/shape the depth and tension of the sailcloth. Well, as I go to put my U-joint back into the mast extension, I notice this good sized crack running across the base of my vintage U-joint (made in W Germany... like every other plastic piece of my gear). And the dawning realization of what this means slowly washes over me, as chilling as a 45 degree wave of water...
(insert profanity)
I am talking LOTS of profanity. My mind starts going into overdrive on what I am going to do here.
I call my buddy Kenny who has the same mast-base (old Fanatic with white plastic plug-style attachment) and give him the "hey... you weren't thinking of coming out to Seneca this afternoon where you?" (oh please God, say yes...) "Naw, we had a great day at C'daigua yesterday, why didn't you come up for it?" (mutter something about school and realize its a lost cause b/c he has plans for the afternoon, thank him and explore other options)
Hmmm...
I call Google 411 (if you haven't heard of it: www.google.com/goog411/ ) to try and call the shop in C'daigua, but its closed, and then I remember the owner saying he was going to be shutting down for the season around 7 Nov or something.
Sh*t.
(insert despair)
Now, granted it wasn't the *best* of wind, but it was like 65 degrees, sunny and probably the last "nice" day of the season I was going to get, and not only had I broken two pieces of critical gear, I managed to break one of the things I didn't have any spares of, and no way to fix.
(insert LOTS more despair)
So my friend Amanda shows up and we talk about it, and she's like "well, its already cracked, the wind is from the S, if I were you... I'd just stay close to shore and ride it until it breaks". Now this goes against every last piece of Boy Scout philosophy within me, but lacking any good options, it seems like the only thing left to do (as an aside, in climbing we have an analogous saying for when things are bad and you are out of options... we call it "retreating upward").
Anyways... I tied my mast extension to my mast base with a piece of cord (planning ahead for when entropy takes over and the "few" pieces became "many"), and set off for whatever adventure that some 1980's plastic had in store for me. I am glad I did though, because it ended up being a great day of sailing. I amazed myself by hitting 80-ish% of my tacks, and when I got blown into the drink, out in the middle of the lake, I stopped myself from just hopping back on the board and uphauling. No no... a bit of patient re-arranging, 20 seconds of butt-sailing, and I was back on plane with my first "I actually needed to use it" waterstart. Amanda was styling it too, with a bunch of waterstarts, and her first day in the footstraps!
This ensued a round of congratulations, and a comical "look how far we have come" debate on who had been surfing longer and was more advanced... (now that we can both waterstart and get into the footstraps) like there is some sort of moral virtue among the clinically insane. It went something like: I took a single lesson 7 years ago and handn't touched a board until 3 months ago. She started with a few days last fall, and since June has been out as much as possible. In the end, I think I won the semantics side of the debate, she won the actual skill and proficiency side of it. You be the judge.
Overall it was a great day on the water and I will end my missive with this plead to the masses: if anyone has a spare mast base that can be modified/cannibalized to fix this one, or one I can bolt my white plastic thingy on:
shawnhigbee.smugmug.com/photos/417146029_WagJb-M.jpg (crack is where the pen tip is)
Or has any pointers on where I can get this fixed, that would be IMMENSELY appreciated. I mean, I don't have what it takes to play with the Seneca Lake A-team on a 40mph day, but if I can get this thing fixed, I intend to push this season as far as I can go until I turn into a popsicle out there.
Have a great night everyone!
Shawn
Seneca Lake B-team Charter Member
